Jackson Jambalaya

Whither goes the Jackson Zoo?  WLBT reported:

With budget talks looming, Jackson city leaders say it’s time to make some tough decisions about the future of the Jackson Zoological Park.

Records obtained by 3 On Your Side show attendance and revenue for the park continue to freefall, two years after one councilman suggested closing the park to cover unforeseen expenses elsewhere in the city.

Meanwhile, the zoo has racked up millions of dollars in unpaid water bills, largely due to a leak in the moat surrounding the chimpanzee exhibit.

It’s unclear if that leak has been fixed.

As for attendance figures, documents show 8,618 people have visited the park so far, this fiscal year, about 2,400 fewer than visited the park during the same time in the previous year.

Revenue also is down. Through the end of July, the park brought in just $34,352.83, compared to $40,023 through July 21 of last year. Article

How bad are the numbers? Check them out below.

Unfortunately, some Council members are not grounded in reality.

Ward Two Councilwoman Tina Clay doesn’t support moving the zoo or shutting it down, and believes its best days are ahead, but agrees more funding is needed.

“Leave the zoo where it is. Work on the zoo. Reach out to resources to help bring people in,” she said. “The zoo looks no worse than the Hattiesburg Zoo did 20 years ago and look at [the Hattiesburg Zoo] now.”

She says the park likely can’t rely solely on city funds to support it and needs to look at other sources of funding to help support it and build it up....

Council Vice President Vernon Hartley, who represents that ward, has been a vocal opponent of moving or closing the park, saying in 2023 that the idea to defund it was a “knee-jerk reaction” to a budget shortfall.

“We have to figure out what we’re going to do, and again, my goal is ... not [to] leave an empty space,” he said. “Don’t leave an empty space for bad things to happen.”

The discussion over whether to move or close the zoo may be moot in a few years as the collection continues to shrink:

In all, the zoo has 118 total animals, down from 338 reported by Jackson Jambalaya in 2018.

Empty and overgrown exhibits dot the park’s landscape. At least five or six bird enclosures outside the aquatics building are empty.

Kingfish note: The city does not have the money to expand the collection nor is anyone visiting the zoo.  A 2016 study reported the Jackson Zoological Society could not get donations until the zoo was moved to a better location.  As the inventory grows smaller, the question may resolve itself.